CAGD 370: Sprint 3

ePortfolio

Blog Post 3: Puzzling Puzzles

Publication - 11/09/25

The Goal

            My team, Treasure Hunters, is developing a game prototype called Vinebound. Our goal is to produce a functional prototype for our peers to experience by the end of the semester. The creation of this prototype is to emphasize the iterative design process and agile development.

Lead Designer

            Vinebound is an in-house idea I developed. With no external sources for the material, I am responsible for proper communication between my team to ensure they see the same vision I see for Vinebound. During each meeting, I have tried to ensure that each member of the team is not overworked and also has their voice heard if they have issues with how the team is being conducted. Despite my best efforts for proper communication between members about aspects of the game this sprint, there was a failure in our processes, which involved our main movement mechanic, the grappling hook. The issue stemmed from a miscommunication that occurred at the end of Sprint 1, in which a member of our team had not seen a vital critique document, leading them to believe the mechanic was without its flaws. After this failure occurred, our team took a step back to iterate on our communication processes to ensure that this would not occur again. This led to a pipeline of communication where all ears heard the information with written documentation to back it up. Our team's quick actions to fix the problem resulted in a minimal loss of progress. This situation made it apparent to me that, despite best efforts, issues can still arise, and it matters how they are dealt with to prevent them from occurring again. 

The Sprint

            Sprint 3 was kicked off with a priority on the kinesthetics playtest, which was the big event during this sprint. To prepare for this as a team, we needed to ensure we had a proper area to test the mechanism and for the mechanism itself to behave properly. The kinesthetics playtest results went better than expected, with everyone loving the grappling hook, and the few critiques were about the speed of the swing, the layout of the level itself, or the control scheme. Issues that were highlighted during the playtest were slotted in to be reworked during the remainder of the sprint, those being the grappling hook, level, and control scheme. After those issues were resolved, we added new features to prepare ourselves for the system playtest occurring in the upcoming weeks. The feature set that I added to the prototype, which took the majority of this sprint, was an assortment of puzzles.

Puzzle #1

            The first puzzle I developed is a combination-based system that revolves around the player choosing shapes in a particular order to "open" the door. This is a versatile system where I am able to reduce or increase the number of possible combinations, allowing for it to be easy in smaller levels and harder in more advanced ones. There are some quality-of-life aspects I am going to rework in the next sprint about the system; notably, changing selection from the front of the character to the reticle, and also having a reactive HUD to notify the player if they get it wrong in build versions.

Implementation

                           

            This is the combination puzzle implemented into the first level we created. To make the puzzle more interesting, I wanted the player to think and get more of a feel for the jungle atmosphere. To do this, I used a riddle whose clues corresponded to the colors of the objects. From playtesting, I received positive feedback, so I will be implementing puzzles of this style with a higher difficulty.

Puzzle #2

            

            This is the second puzzle I created. This puzzle is a collection-based one, where you must grab a certain number of objects to unlock the door. In this video, the player collects five keys. After the fifth, the door "opens". This is also a versatile system, as I am able to modify the requirements of the puzzle to fit the context it is set in. Adding this puzzle to a level is to make the player feel the need to explore the areas more thoroughly, making them take their time and be immersed in the gameplay. This puzzle was specifically designed for our upcoming level that is currently in the works. I aim to implement at least three different puzzle variants overall. The third one is not complete yet, but it will be implemented by the end of the next sprint.

Pause Menu

            One of the main issues that we had during our kinesthetics playtest was the lack of a control layout for players to get familiar with. This led to many people becoming confused about which button did what and how they are all correlated. Adding a list of keybinds was a needed fix, and I decided a pause menu would be the perfect place for it, as it allowed the game to pause so the player could absorb the controls without game events affecting them. To ensure the player understood the game was paused, I added a color filter and lettering to further signify the game was paused, as during internal testing, there was confusion with the menu before these extra additions.

The Result

            The end of Sprint 3 marks a milestone in our team's ability to restructure ourselves when the situation demands it. The communication error could have easily delayed the progress of the game by a large margin of time, but our quick restructuring allowed for minimal delays, allowing us to progress at the same rate as in the last sprint. The appearance of this issue displayed to me that, regardless of how much one believes their plans are foolproof, there is always room for improvement. The results of our kinesthetic playtest reinforced to me that our movement mechanic is fun and we are on the right track. The improvements we have made since then show we are following agile development to its fullest extent. The versatile puzzle systems created so far are essential to our level design, which boosts immersiveness. By the end of the next sprint, they will be fully fleshed out, allowing for enhanced player feedback.